


Two

by inquisitor_tohru



Series: Mundus Novus [4]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Light Angst, Platonic Female/Male Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: Nick and Ruby chat by the campfire after meeting DiMA for the first time, while Ruby cooks up some…interesting cuisine.





	

**Author's Note:**

> (Dialogue relating to DiMA is taken from the game)

The heavy, oily smell of the roaches filled the air around the campfire. Over several months, Ruby had learned to tolerate them – at least, when they were no longer crawling around. The thing about the roaches was that their odour, their _taste,_ would linger and get into any food stored nearby. And they were _everywhere._ You might as well get used to it. She separated the tough outer shell from the softer, fleshier bits using one of the knives she’d borrowed from Aster before they’d headed out.

“Roasted radroach _again_?” She didn’t need to look up. She could picture Nick’s expression from the tone of his voice. He’d been shaken up when they’d first spoken with DiMA, but camping just outside of the bustling little harbour town seemed to have grounded him. Sitting by the campfire, sharing their old world blues, was one of their tried and tested routines.

“You know me, Nick. Can’t get enough of it.” She rubbed salt, herbs, and spices into the edible bits before skewering the meat. “Still wondering why I didn’t try this recipe back in my days of being a housewife.” She laughed softly, remembering Shaun’s face when he’d first seen her cooking after they left the Institute together.

She wondered what sights, sounds and smells Nick and DiMA had first encountered when they’d escaped, and her chest tightened. She stayed quiet for a while, basking in the warmth of the fire as she turned the skewers. It had to be cooked through. You didn’t eat medium-rare radroach, not unless you wanted to give yourself a mild dose of radiation poisoning. Nick sighed, and she looked up to see him fiddling with a few exposed wires on his wrist. _Running a diagnostic_ , he called it.

“Nick?”

“What? Oh, sorry. Just got my head full of what DiMA was talking about. It’s…a bit of a shock. What do you think he is really…family?”

She recalled what Nick had said, back in Acadia. _“Can synths even be related? Just because we’re from the same assembly line, does that make us family?”_ Shaun was a synth, and she was his mother. Not by blood, not exactly, but they had a bond – they had memories, things they did together. Things they _shared._ Ruby thought of DiMA, surrounded by wires, almost entrapped by them, and fitted with more memory banks than she’d ever seen together in one room. She couldn’t imagine Nick living like that. Confined to one place, by choice.

“Before I answer, are you okay?”

“I’ll keep. Don’t worry. Just need to figure this all out.”

She stayed quiet for a while, basking in the warmth of the fire as she turned the skewers. It had to be cooked through. You didn’t eat medium-rare radroach, not unless you wanted to give yourself a mild dose of radiation poisoning.

“Honestly? I don’t know what to think, Nick.” He let out a tired laugh, muffled by the sounds of the meat sizzling.

“Yeah…Guess that makes two of us.”


End file.
